"This is a complete drag..." Lina Inverse moaned.
Amelia glanced surprisedly at the red head buried into her arms at the next desk. "But this is debate class!! Don't you enjoy this class? Today's topic is Justice and Evil!!"
"Oh. Wow," Lina replied, shifting her head slightly to reveal her bored eyes. "That really makes me want to stand up and sing."
"But don't you care about these things?" Amelia insisted.
"What things?"
"Justice!! How it will prevail and override evil!! Here Lina, look at this!!" The short, yet buxom brunette shoved the fifty page outline she had written in preparation the night before in front of her friend's nose.
"Oh god," Lina gasped sitting up suddenly.
"What? No wait, I know. You didn't do it. Again," Amelia sighed with emphasis on the last word. "Of course, not that you really care, do you?"
"Hmm? Oh yeah, this is Gourry's class!! Well!! No need to worry anymore about that!!"
"Really Lina," a soft voice murmured from behind the redhead, "you should address him as Mr. Gabriev!!"
Lina turned her head round to see a disapproving Sylphiel. "Address him as what?"
"As Mr. Gabriev!! You know... his surname!"
Lina blinked twice, and a closed fist lightly slapped her other palm. "Oh yeah... Yeah. That's right. Gourry Gabriev. But it's not like even he remembers his own surname. The last time you addressed him that way, he didn't even know you were talking to him."
Amelia didn't want to agree with her, but it had definitely happened on more than one occasion. So even she, well-mannered princess of the city would address the teacher as Gourry; not Mr. Gabriev.
Sylphiel felt slightly unhappy with the negative comments being directed to her object of desire, but decided to let the matter go. After all, once Lina had her mind set on something, there was no changing her. "Anyway," the priestess said, changing the subject, "it might not have been such a good idea not to do your homework last night, Lina."
"What? Why...?"
"Oh... that's right," Amelia agreed, nodding.
"What?!" Lina demanded.
Sylphiel shook her head. "Don't you remember? We have a male student teacher from the nearby university to substitute for the rest of the year."
"What? But it's not even past first quarter yet!"
"You really weren't listening yesterday, were you? Well, apparently the school found Gou -- ... I mean Mr. Gabriev's teaching insufficient to what the school requires, and decided to seek a little help."
"Oh, is that all?" Lina rolled her eyes, and slumped back down into her seat. "Chances are, he'll be twice as dense as that silly blonde."
"But what if he's not?" Amelia returned after exchanging glances with Sylphiel.
"Then~ I'll... fireball him like I do to Gourry, of course. Teachers must learn to respect their students, don't they?"
"Actually, I think that's 'students should respect their teachers', Lina."
"Oh WELL... Say... speaking of these teachers, it's 11:45 already. They're 10 minutes late."
Just at that moment, the door slid open, and in walked Gourry Gabriev. He apologized and smiled his happy go lucky smile, and Lina heard Sylphiel starting to melt behind her. Behind the blonde, followed another figure. Amelia suddenly gasped.
The redhead socceress looked up in curiosity, her chin still seated on the table behind her arms. The man beside Gourry must be the new substitute, she thought to herself. She glanced at Amelia, who seemed to be terrorized in shock. "Hey Amelia," Lina whispered. "What's wrong with you?"
The princess of Sailune glared back, and managed to stutter in reply, "D-don't you see? It's a chimera! A thing of evil!! J-just look at him!!"
"Yeah yeah. Whatever."
They didn't know that the 'evil creature' had excessively good hearing.
"This is Zeldagiss Graywords," introduced Gourry to the classroom of female students.
'Zeldagiss' sighed. "It's Zelgadiss," he contradicted annoyedly as if he had gone over this a hundred times.
"He's nineteen years old," Gourry continued happily, "and apparently excelled in his magic and debate classes in university. Coincidentally, he has decided to take a year off. That's why the board has selected him to be my assistant for the rest of the year."
Assistant..., Lina thought to herself. A bit hard to believe...
"Yes, Sylphiel?"
The timid and blushing girl lowered her head to face the desk. "Then... you still will be teaching?"
"Oh no, I'll simply be watching Zeldigass and supervising. ^^. "
The chimera bowed in greeting to the class. "My name is Zelgadiss Graywords, but you need only address me as Zelgadiss. After all, I'm not much older than you all," he said.
Lina studied him a bit as he explained his background. He's... well, blue, definitely golem, and perhaps... Mazoku as well? She pondered to herself. He looks and sounds like he has more sense than that dumb blonde over there, and besides, he knows magic. Excells, even. And since debate in year Kis did involve magic... she might not even mind coming to this class. ^^ Maybe this year would actually be okay.
"Her name is Lina," smirked Martina loudly from the back of the room. The redhead snapped out of her thoughts.
"Lina?" the chimera repeated.
"Wha -- I mean, yes?"
"He was asking you to start the debate," Amelia hissed.
"I said, you seemed quite interested in what I was saying just now, so I thought you might like to start on the homework that Mr. Gabriev assigned yesterday."
Okay, so maybe the start of the year wouldn't be so great.
"Who did you just say?" Gourry asked in question.
"......you," Sylphiel quietly supplied when no else replied.
"oh~..."
Lina very slowly stood up in attempt to buy time. Damn, she thought. I bet he did this on purpose for me looking at his stupid, golem demeanor. "Well... Justice is very important... because..." she stammered. "Because.... Justice is..." JUSTICE. She sounded like a pathetic version of Amelia.
Zelgadiss crossed his arms across his chest thoughtfully. "Do you want to try supply an example instead, Lina? That often helps."
"Example?" He IS doing this on purpose to revenge for me looking at him!! I didn't even mean to stare at him!! Is it my fault he's so self-conscious?! What a moron... "Well..." she managed, "...Like when ... a bandit has stolen money from someone else, it is up to people like me to retrieve it and... punish... them, I guess..."
"And what will you do with what you've retrieved?"
"...Keep it, of course...What?"
"N-nothing... Well. Very erm... good. You may sit down now. The girl next to Lina... what's your name?"
"Amelia," she the princess replied tartly. The chimera probably supported evil and not justice.
"Okay Amelia. Are you against or for?"
"FOR, of course!!" Unlike SOME others... She added silently.
"Would you like to add anything to Lina's statement then?"
Amelia haughtily flipped out her outline, and delved into her hour speech. When she finally made it halfway through, Lina and about 10 other students were ready to fireball her.
Zelgadiss stifled a yawn and glanced over at Gourry, who was already fast asleep at his desk. Maybe I should stop this strange, obsessed girl... he thought to himself.
"And because of our acceptance to criminals' behaviour," continued Amelia who was completely oblivious to the bored expressions surrounding her, "they have unconsciously decided to -- "
"Amelia?"
The princess looked up sharply at the interruption in her 'beautiful' speech. "Yes, Mr. Graywords?" she asked acidly.
Zelgadiss shivered at the sound of her voice. "...you can call me Zelgadiss if you like... Anyway... about your speech. It's definitely ... good, very wordy, and your points are," he groped for words of encouragement, " ... original and deep."
Amelia's eyes lit up in surprise. "Does that mean... you support what I'm saying? It's good?!"
"A...bsolutely..." he said slowly with a strained smile. (which Amelia took for one of pride.) "But you could definitely shorten it up a bit... in some places you have been redundant."
The bell suddenly rung. Everyone threw their notebooks into their bags immediately, and hitched up their textbooks to head for their next class.
"Alright girls," Zelgadiss said, "tomorrow we will continue. And please. I want everyone to be prepared tomorrow. Like Amelia was."
Lina felt that he was looking straight at her as he said that. She groaned inwardly, and followed Amelia out of class.